Sometimes I'm too tired to watch a "good" movie

“Why do you keep watching those movies? There're plenty of other things more intellectual.” – I complained every time I saw my parents watching a light-hearted boy-meet-girl movie or a lengthy Korean family drama series on TV. For me, these are a total waste of time as the plots are repetitive and outdated, so you can easily guess what is going to happen. But my parents keep watching them.

A few days ago I had a family reunion, and I was responsible for taking care of eight nephews and nieces while the other adults were doing the cooking. Two of my nieces are near the end of primary school; the rest are preschoolers aged 3 to 5. Those preschoolers, as you can imagine, usually fight and turn my room into a complete mess. So I bought them 10 coloring books so that they could sit down for a while and focus on coloring the simple objects or animals in the books. Seeing their cousins doing the coloring, my two primary school aged nieces asked if they could as well do the coloring. I was surprised: “Why ? You’re grown up.” but still gave them some books. They told me: I am so tired of Math and Literature, and I just want to do some simple things like coloring objects in the house to relax.” So off they went, doing the coloring work like their baby cousins. What a peaceful atmosphere.

Yesterday I searched for a movie on Netflix. It took me a while because I couldn’t find a suitable name. I didn’t want to watch Friends though it’s really good for English learning, and I can find many relevant examples from that movie for my teaching. I didn’t want to watch a romantic movie because I was not in a mood for that. Then I found a famous title which sounded really intellectual and decided to watch it. In the opening scene, a Harvard professor was delivering a talk. I thought I would love the movie. But right in the next scene, there was a murder, self violence, darkness… I didn’t think I could stand it any more, so I stopped it. I was about to close Netflix when a title intrigued me: Like father Like daughter. The movie then held my attention for more than an hour. The plot was simple: a father who was away for more than 20 years came back out of the blue on his daughter’s wedding day. Unluckily, what he witnessed was his daughter was rejected by her fiancé right at the wedding altar when the groom figured out his wife to-be made a long business phone call and was late for their ceremony. Then like a trick of fate, the father and daughter went on a cruise trip which was reserved for her honeymoon. This trip was the chance for the lady to reconnect with her father and realize work should not be her one and only concern in life. It is a movie with a simple plot, but it serves me well after an already long day at work. Now I understand why my parents watch the light-hearted romantic movies and my nieces love the coloring books.